Online trivia games surge
The Newcombe family is competitive and loves games, especially trivia, said Robert Newcombe.
Since its inception a couple of years ago, the Halifax family has attended a community trivia night held monthly in Port Williams, Kings County. When the in-person games switched to an online version during COVID-19, the extended family got together to create an online team, including Robert’s mother Geneve.
They had so much fun together, Geneve Newcombe said, they later started a weekly family trivia game as a way to connect.
Each week, said Geneve Newcombe, one couple is responsible for making up the trivia questions consisting of four to five rounds of 10 questions each, all based around a theme. Some of their themes have been “family,” “couples” and “activities during self-isolation.”
“Getting the right difficulty of questions is challenging,” said Robert Newcombe. “It needs to be something everyone could know, maybe have heard of before, but it’s not too easy.”
From there, each team texts a photo of their answers to the host couple. The entire family trivia game is hosted through Microsoft Teams.
POPULAR PASTIME
These online trivia games have become a popular pastime during the COVID-19 lockdown — and not just for families. Entire communities are getting involved.
Sam Macdonald of Charlottetown, P.E.I., hosts two online trivia games. Macdonald began hosting live trivia nights at the Churchill Arms Pub almost 10 years ago, so when the pandemic hit, he wanted to find a way to keep it going.
“I wanted to help folks somehow keep some feeling of normalcy,” he said.
A couple of weeks into the pandemic, he also started running weekly pop culture-themed trivia nights for the Small Print Board Game Café.
Macdonald runs the games through Facebook Live. Each of the teams get Zoom meetings going and one or two of them per team tune in to the Facebook Live video for the questions.
Viewer numbers range from 100 to nearly 450, depending on the theme. And players turn in from all over, including Japan, Australia and Scotland, he said.
“One of our themes was so popular that we had just over 160 answer sheets to mark,” said Macdonald.
Tyson Rovers hosts the live trivia night in Port Williams that the Newcombes attend. Turning it into an online version when the pandemic hit seemed an obvious move, he said.
“The main benefit I see,” said Rovers, “is that people can play with family and friends from anywhere in the world. We’ve had people playing from all over Canada and even the U.S.”
For these games, teams sign into Zoom to hear the questions, then talk amongst themselves via another platform like Google Hangouts or even the telephone. The team captain emails Rovers the answers. Rovers gets some help from family members for scoring.
“I don’t think the system will ever be perfect,” he said. “We have rural internet, and it’s a bit spotty, so sometimes my audio cuts out.”
It’s better than nothing, he adds.
Rovers says his themes are different each time, and sometimes draws upon upcoming holidays or what he encounters in daily life.
“I heard the song 'Come Sail Away' by Styx on the radio and wrote an entire trivia night with a nautical theme,” he said. “As with all trivia nights, it’s all about the quality of the questions. It needs to be fun. I strive to make the questions varied so everyone on the team can contribute.”
HOW IT WORKS
The Town of Conception Bay South’s department of recreation and leisure services in Newfoundland began offering online trivia nights more than two months ago in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
“We wanted to run a fun activity for people, while they stayed safely isolated at home. It is a virtual, easily accessible event for residents since they don’t have to leave the comfort of their homes,” said program supervisor Carla Hodder.
Each week, residents send along an email to town staff saying they would like to play that week’s trivia game and are sent the game Zoom link and information, and a team name they use to join the game.
All participants are required to turn off their mics to make sure everyone can clearly hear the answers but can decide if they want to share video of themselves or not.
The host shares the screen with everyone, and questions are posted on the screen, one at a time. The host also reads each question twice before moving on. There is not a lot of time between questions, as they don’t want to give people the opportunity to look up answers on their phones.
Participants record their answers on a sheet of paper for their own reference. At the end of each question round, Hodder said, they give the answers and participants can see how many they got right. At the end of all rounds, participants send a chat message to the game host with their total score of the night. Once all scores are received, the top three players are announced to the crowd.
“The game is run on the honour system and we always ask people to refrain from looking up the answers. The speed of the game, and the way the questions are worded, often makes looking up the answers quickly a challenge,” she said.
While the quizzes are being marked by a town staff member, Hodder said another staff member has discussions with the participants. This community time is always a laugh and is very enjoyable, she said.
GAME TIPS
If you want to try online trivia with a group, these experts offer some tips.
Hodder said to test the technology and do your research beforehand to make sure you can run the game successfully. Not only does it relieve stress, but when you can deliver a program with no technical issues, people feel more inclined to play again and have confidence in the game.
Macdonald agrees, saying to keep the technology as simple as you can. Don't try to layer systems on systems or apps on apps.
“A lot can go wrong on the technical end of things, so keeping it simple helps things run more smoothly,” he said.
Macdonald says it’s very important to stay engaged with your players. This is something Rovers finds challenging with the online version; with mics muted, there is no immediate feedback or banter, and things are very quiet on his end.
“I love when people groan and challenge and laugh at what I do,” said Rovers.
Remember, said Rovers, it’s a lot of work to organize, and it’ll take longer than you think to prepare.
But, in the end, it is worth it. The community response to the games has been phenomenal, said Hodder. Each week we have new faces joining and they all seem to have a great time, she said.
“We all have had a lot of laughs and fun doing online trivia,” said Geneve Newcombe. “And while it is not the same as being together physically, it is definitely a step up from just talking on the phone or having a group chat on a platform.”